Re: Human perception of infrared

[aaronf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Aaron Ferrucci)]

bazpan@xxxxxxx wrote:
> ...
> I'm pretty quick to put my hand up when I'm wrong (often), but just for my
> self-respect can I say that UK newspapers, everybody I know with whom I deal
> in large numbers, and my Oxford dictionary all reckon a UK billion is one
> thousand million. Still, as you say, let's stick to indices.
> ...

Curiouser and curiouser!  This matter of large numbers gets more complex
the more you look at it... I just looked up "billion" in the "New Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary", 1993, and found agreement with what bazpan
says, namely, a billion is a thousand million.  However, also included in
the definition is the meaning, "a million million (only in British pop. 
use)".  My own copy of the Compact OED, 1964, defines things as I stated
in a previous posting (UK billion = 10^12, US billion = 10^9).

It appears that UK English speakers have switched over to the US usage
sometime in the last 30 years or so... which is good; I don't particularly
care which definition is adopted, but consistency is important when dealing
with such large quantities!

And now, back to your regularly scheduled photographic discussion..
- -Aaron

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